The recent resignation of Turkey’s military high command, along with reports that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will subordinate the military to civilian rule, could mark a new era for that nation. Sweeping constitutional changes, however, are still needed to ensure fundamental rights and avoid exchanging one form of repression for another. The United States should challenge Turkey’s civilian leadership to make such long-overdue changes, especially regarding religious freedom, including for religious minorities.
While Turkey has long been a formal democracy, it has been a decidedly imperfect one. Since Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923, his rigid state secularism has stifled religious freedom. Restrictions have hindered the majority Sunni Muslim community and have discriminated against and threatened religious minority communities, including Greek, Armenian, and Syriac Orthodox Churches; Catholic and Protestant Churches; the Jewish community; and the Alevis.
Constitutionally, the military was the protector of the secular state apparatus that engaged in or tolerated religious freedom violations. Indeed, the context for the recent military resignations was Erdoğan’s refusal to promote officers who allegedly plotted within Ergenekon, a clandestine ultranationalist group, to topple his Islamic-oriented government and commit violence against numerous faith communities and their houses of worship.
As the inheritor of this legacy, Erdoğan and his AK Party have faced an uphill battle to deepen Turkey's democratic institutions and culture. Their moves to bolster civilian rule have positive implications for respecting international human rights norms, including religious freedom.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/178317-religious-freedom-for-turkey
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